Enclosures

Honda Civic Stereo Upgrade for Repeat Lake City Client

July 29, 2022 By JOey Knapp

The owner of this 2015 Honda Civic previously had a stereo system installed by us in his old vehicle. We had removed that stereo system for him, and now he wanted his equipment installed in the Honda Civic. We came up with a plan for his Honda Civic stereo upgrade that would use a combination of his old gear and a few new parts.

Honda Civic Stereo Upgrade: Speakers

We mounted the Morel tweeters in the factory tweeter location.

The Morel Virtus speakers fit perfectly behind the door panel.

In addition to upgrading the rear speakers, we also removed the factory 8″ subwoofer to provide a vent for the bass upgrade.

The OEM radio was retained as the source unit.

The previous setup the client had used a pair of Morel Virtus component speakers. These are some of our favorite speakers, so we were happy to be using them again in the Civic. Adding to the Virtus components, we added a set of Morel Maximo coaxial speakers in the rear deck. Powering the speakers are the 8 channels from two Rockford Fosgate 5-channel amplifiers. Six of the channels are powering the Virtus speakers (4 channels powering the woofers, 2 powering the tweeters) and two of the channels power the rear speakers. This provides the client with an incredible amount of power on tap for a very dynamic sound. The client liked the functionality of his existing factory radio, so we integrated his amplifiers with the factory radio outputs. Our Mitchell1 software was used to look up the wiring charts for the Civic and integrate our convertors.

Honda Civic Stereo Upgrade: Subwoofers

The small enclosure left the client with plenty of trunk space.

The corners were rounded on the enclosure and the carpet was neatly wrapped.

The custom lasered insert gives this enclosure a unique look.

We lasered a custom remote bass level plate for the client.

Phase two of this installation was to add some bass. In the clients previous vehicle he had a single 10″ subwoofer. This time he had the trunk space, so he wanted more bass. Answering the call for more bass in this Civic was a pair of Rockford Fosgate 10″ P3 subwoofers. This subwoofers handle over 600 watts each and work in a very small enclosure. We designed and built the enclosure to fit up against the back seat of the Civic. It took up very little of the trunk’s usable space. To add a little bit of cosmetic flare to the enclosure we added an additional front plate that not only recessed in the woofers, but also gave us a mounting spot for a trim plate. The center trim plate featured a Honda emblem. We cut the plate on our laser and used a lower power setting to cut the acrylic paper and use it as a template for painting the design you see.

Honda Civic Stereo Upgrade: Result!

After all the installation work done, we setup the amplifiers to extract all of the potential output from the speakers and subwoofers. The result was a very dynamic audio system that played loudly and cleanly. The client loved this Honda Civic stereo even more than his last car! We would love to chat with you about your next stereo upgrade, stop by Pinnacle Autosound or contact us online to make an appointment.

Ford Raptor Stereo System Upgrade

July 1, 2022 By JOey Knapp

The Ford Raptor is an awesome bit of engineering. Take one of the most popular Ford Trunks and pump it full of steroids and you have a Raptor! It is unfortunate, however, that the team at Ford didn’t design an audio system that was as awesome as the truck itself. Luckily, this is where Pinnacle Autosound comes in! A local client contacted us about upgrading her son’s Ford Raptor stereo system. She was very knowledgeable on mobile electronics, so it was a pleasure to work with her to design the perfect system for her son’s truck.

Speaker Upgrade

The front door speaker adapters were cut on our laser.

The speaker were installed behind the factory door panels.

The JL Audio C3 speaker was mounted as a coaxial speaker in the rear doors.

The client is a long-time fan of JL Audio, so we leaned heavily on that brand for this stereo system. For the front and rear doors, we used the JL Audio C3 speakers to form the foundation for great sound in this Raptor. The C3 speaker is unique in that it can be installed as either a component set or a coaxial speaker. This is fortunate for this Raptor, because we needed a component set for the front doors and a coaxial for the rear doors. The JL Audio C3 speakers were the perfect fit for each set of doors! To adapt the factory 5×7′ speaker to the JL Audio 6.5″ we used our laser to cut acrylic adapter plates. In the rear doors we used an aftermarket speaker adapter and topped it off with a bit of sound deadening material.

Amplifiers and Integration Processor Installation

We pre-wired much of the wiring on the amplifier mounting plate.

We carefully laid out the gear on the amp board to make sure they all fit.

We made a custom plate for the remote bass knob.

To power the speakers and subwoofers in the truck we used two different JL Audio amplifiers. The amplifiers and additional electronics were mounted to a custom board that we constructed to go behind the rear seats. The board mounts using factory mounting points on the back wall of the truck. Powering the speakers is an RD400/4 amplifier. The JL Audio RD amplifiers provide the client with incredible value and great sound. Providing the 1000 watts we needed for the subwoofers is a JL Audio JD1000/1 amplifier. This amp provides plenty of clean power in a small footprint chassis.
Because the client wanted to keep the factory source unit, we used a NAV-TV Zen interface to obtain a clean audio signal. The Zen interface takes the factory digital signal and provides a clean analog output that we used to feed signal to the amplifiers.
The final piece of electronics that are mounted to the board are the passive crossovers for the JL Audio C3 speakers. To make future servicing easier we custom lasered plastic labels to designate the front and rear, left and right crossovers. To give the client’s son complete control over the subwoofer amplifier, we mounted a JL Audio remote bass knob to the left of the steering wheel. We added a custom lasered labeling plate beneath the knob.

Custom Subwoofer Enclosure

The enclosure was loaded with the subwoofers and ready to be installed.

The enclosure lighting and speaker wiring was wired with a quick release plug, in case the enclosure needed to be removed.

The enclosure was finished with a combination of carpet, vinyl and acrylic trim pieces.

Laser-etched accent panels flank the center Raptor logo.

The laser etched piece of acrylic was also lit with LED RGB lighting.

The Raptor logo was lit and accent lighting was added at the bottom of the enclosure.

Bass for this system is a pair of JL Audio 10Tw3 subwoofers. These are some of JL Audio’s best “thin” subwoofers. We have used many of these subwoofers over the years to fit in the tight spaces that modern trucks present us with. In addition to being a shallow-mount subwoofers, these winners also take very little airspace for their enclosure. A home run for trucks! The client didn’t want just a plain carpeted enclosure for her son, and that was music to our ears! We used a combination of laser cut acrylic pieces and LED lighting to really set this enclosure apart.

Ford Raptor Stereo Upgrade Success

As with all our installations, after the equipment was installed and the vehicle cleaned, we set the controls on the amplifiers to maximize the output of the stereo system. This truck was designed to sound incredible, and it didn’t disappoint. The client loved the way the truck sounded, and enjoyed the impressive amount of bass it had, she couldn’t wait to share it with her son. We have worked on hundreds of trucks, so we know how to make them sound great. If you have a truck and are interested in upgrading the sound in it, stop by or contact us online.

Chevrolet Silverado JL Audio Bass Upgrade

April 11, 2022 By JOey Knapp

A repeat client contacted us about adding some bass to his wife’s Chevrolet Silverado. After discussing a few options with him, we came up with the perfect solution. A pair of JL Audio 10Tw3 subwoofers and a 750 watt Rockford Fosgate amplifier would give his wife all the bass she could want.

Rockford Fosgate Subwoofer Amplifier

To power the JL Audio subwoofers we chose the Rockford Fosgate R2 750 watt amplifier. While officially labeled as a 750 watt amplifier, this powerhouse actually packs over 900 watts in a small footprint. The amplifier was tucked away under the driver’s seat.

JL Audio Bass Upgrade

To maximize the amount of bass we could fit under the rear seat of the client’s wife’s truck, we looked to one of our favorite subwoofers, the JL Audio 10tw3. The JL Audio 10tw3 subwoofer offers all the performance of a full sized traditional subwoofer in a profile that is a little more than 3″ deep. The shallow mounting depth, small enclosure requirements and great power handling all make for a subwoofer that is nearly perfect. It’s no wonder it is our go-to truck subwoofer.

Custom Subwoofer Enclosure

With the gear selected, it was time to build the enclosure for the subwoofer. We headed into our woodshop to construct a sealed enclosure with the subwoofers in a down firing orientation. Firing the subwoofers down not only offers them a bit of protection, but also provides some sonic benefits, as well. We noticed that the truck had some pink accents on it, so we decided to take that theme and run with it. When the enclosure was fabricated, we used our laser to cut a 1/4″ MDF template that was glued on the enclosure. The template was then blended into the enclosure with body filler. The template formed a pocket for a custom acrylic insert. We used our laser again to cut a 1/4″ black acrylic insert for the pocket. We set the laser to cut “Silverado” just deep enough to cut through the protective paper on the acrylic, and then used that as a mask. With the letters peeled out, we primed and painted the acylic with pink paint that was a perfect match to the other accents on the truck.

Underbody and Interior RGB LED Lighting

The final request for the client was for us to add some RGB LED lighting to the underside of the truck as well as the interior. We used one of our premium LED Glow kits that gives the client smartphone control of the lighting. Another thing that makes this kit special is that LED’s are addressable. Normal kits offer just the ability to change to a single color at a time. This premium kit has LED’s that can be programmed to change to multiple colors, as well chase and form patterns. An added benefit of the interior lighting is that the rear lighting also helped illuminate the front of the new enclosure.

Chevrolet Silverado Bass and Lighting Upgrade

With all the work done it was time to return the truck to the client. Both the client and his wife were thrilled with the way the upgrades sounded, the added details on the enclosure and the lighting on the truck. We were happy that they trusted us to help fulfill their goals for the Silverado. If you would like to know more about Chevrolet Silverado upgrades or other truck options, give us a call or email us.